Language : Analogy of interoperability

To make sense of the topic discussed in this article, let us start with an analogy:

How many languages are there in the world?

Best answer from https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages

The Ethnologue catalogue of world languages, which is one of the best linguistic resources, currently lists 6909 living languages. About 6% of them have more than a million speakers each, and collectively account for 94% of the world population.

Now let us ask another question : What are the top 3 languages in the world?

Best answer from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

The top language by estimated number of native speakers are Mandarin, Spanish and English

💡Takeaway : English, Mandarin & Spanish, are also important languages used by businesses globally.

The blockchain challenge : How many more blockchain

The blockchain euphoria in 2016-2017 has given birth to more blockchains. More Bitcoin and Ethereum siblings are born every month. This trend is evidenced by the increasing hype over initial coin offering (ICO) aka token sales. More startups and new projects are jumping on the blockchain bandwagon. Techcrunch reported ico funding hit a record USD 800 million in Q2 2017. Coindesk ICO Tracker indicated cumulative funding from 2014 to end of 2017 exceeded USD 3.7 billion.

Image courtesy of https://www.coindesk.com/ico-tracker/

The need for blockchain interoperability

Stefan Thomas, Chief Technical Officer at Ripple, in a Coindesk article predicted in 2018 blockchain will start to interoperate :

In 2017, we’ve seen bitcoin’s share of the cryptocurrency market drop from 87 percent to under 50 percent. Hundreds of new coins and tokens launched and are now being traded.

To make the broad use of digital assets truly mainstream, however, I think we’ll need the many blockchain networks that currently exist to interoperate. The truth is there will not be one single dominant blockchain network in the future — just as there isn’t any dominant internet or email provider globally today.

Similar to the Internet, interoperability is the holy grail for the blockchain technology to gain mass adoption. And we predict more collaborative effort with the goal of advancing blockchain technologies across industries will gain momentum in 2018 onwards. Coindesk reported in November 28th 2017, “The companies behind three blockchain platforms have unveiled a new advocacy group centered around promoting interoperability between the disparate networks.Dubbed the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance, the effort is being backed by Aion, ICON and Wanchain in a bid to advance standards that would, as envisioned, promote a greater degree of connectivity between different blockchains.”

💡Key takeway : Do you own analysis? What are the opportunities from interoperability in 2018?

Our top 3 picks: Interoperability movers

In no particular order here are our top 3 picks for interoperability movers in 2018.

AION

COSMOS

BLOCK.ONE (EOS)

Disclaimer : This article is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances.